Friday, March 26, 2004

Pamphlet on gay marriage

Here's a straightforward pamphlet arguing for the right to marry. (From Alas, A Blog) I'm glad that there's an organized effort to take some of the protests against gay marriage seriously, but some of the questions in the FAQ sheet crack me up.

This is different from interracial marriage. Sexual orientation is a choice.I love that argument. Who chooses to bring so much bile onto themselves? Most gay people go through a period of trying to be straight. Where else does the term "in the closet" come from?
I realize that people using this argument are asking gay people to choose celibacy, but the sheer bigotry of that is mind-blowing. Gay people don't ask straight people to refrain because it makes them uncomfortable. I don't want to picture ugly people getting it on, but that doesn't cause me to wish them ill will. Asking gay people to not have sex because you don't like it is just another back of the bus sort of discrimination.

Won't this create a free-for-all and make the whole idea of marriage meaningless?Another favorite of mine. I was under the impression that marriage is meaningful because it's about love and commitment, but apparently it's meaningful because it's a country club that only straight people get to join. Some exclusive club, since more than 90% of people are straight.

Can't same-sex couples go to a lawyer to secure all the rights they need?No, obviously, but even if it was so, why should gay couples have to put out all this time and expense just to keep straight people secure in their bigotry?

I strongly believe children need a mother and a father.This is also a bullshit argument designed to make the person making it look pious while ignoring things like reality. When someone starts arguing about protecting children, hold your wallet and back slowly out the door. They never mean actual children. "Children" are a symbol for willful ignorance defined as innocence. When the word "child" comes up in a debate that has sexual aspects, it seems to be a shorthand for, "This sexual practice or language makes me uncomfortable and I wish it would go away".
In reality, laws against gay marriage hurt children, specifically the children of gay people, who exist whether homophobes like it or not. And there is no evidence that being brought up by same-sex couples hurts children, unless it's by being teased which is really caused by homophobia after all.
The other "child" argument is that since a man and woman can biologically produce a child and a gay couple cannot, then marriage is obviously meant to raise biologically produced children. This is an insult to all couples who have adopted, gay or straight, infertile straight couples, and people like me who choose to remain childless. I can tell you right now, if ability and willingness to procreate was the real underpinning of marriage, then I wouldn't be able to go to the courthouse and marry my boyfriend right now if I liked. They won't ask if we wish to have children, though. They'll just take our check and make sure his ID says male and mine says female.

20 Comments:

I dont care what they do, but I do think that it is wrong that they approve the marriage among gays, they are not normal people, I think that it is an abomination when a guy likes another guy, it is wrong in every way.